


Within These Walls

by hiddenhibernian



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Angst, Battle of Hogwarts, Drama, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-13
Updated: 2020-03-13
Packaged: 2021-03-01 03:42:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,994
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23128735
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hiddenhibernian/pseuds/hiddenhibernian
Summary: “We don't usually fight on school premises, you know,” she said, before correcting herself. “Not using Unforgivables, anyway. Or we don't use them. The other side does.” Well, Katie didn't use them much. Only when she had no other option.Things may have changed, but help will still always be given at Hogwarts to those who ask for it.
Relationships: Katie Bell/Marcus Flint
Comments: 12
Kudos: 36
Collections: Transfiguration: 2020 Round One





	Within These Walls

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by Anonymous in the [DBQ2020Round1](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/DBQ2020Round1) collection. 



> Disclaimer: The characters do not belong to me but are the property of J.K.R. and Warner Bros. No copyright infringement is intended. The theme for this round of the competition was Transfiguration and my chosen pairing was Marcus Flint/Katie Bell. Comments/Reviews are encouraged by The Slytherin Cabal's Admin Team on all stories in Death By Quill, but comments left by readers are set to be moderated by story authors until the end of the competition in order to protect participants' anonymity. Thank you to my beta for their time and help.

It was like a really weird nightmare. You know, the ones where you end up running from a giant banana in the supermarket only to be woken up by your mum, who wants to know what you're still doing in bed at midday.

Only it wasn't a nightmare, it was real.

Death Eaters were running through Hogwarts and its very walls were shaking. Katie would have given anything, anything in the world for Dumbledore to appear out of nowhere and put a stop to it, but she knew it wasn't going to happen.

She tossed her hair to the side and emerged from behind the battered desks, head and wand held high. There would be no miracles tonight, so she had better get a grip and get on with the fighting.

Merlin knew there were some people out there who deserved everything they could get.

* * *

“ _Confringo!_ ” She ducked, just missing the sickly green of a curse sailing over her. She was just about to stand up when a giant boot appeared in the window to the courtyard outside. It smashed the glass and most of the wall.

There were screams and a horrible groaning noise as wooden beams bent and splintered.

Like a swimmer caught by a current, she was pulled down when the floor collapsed. There was a tremendous noise as people, bits of the building and everything else were dumped in one big pile.

Then, there was silence.

Katie did a quick inventory: she still had her wand, so she could –

“Oi! Bell!”

The hoarse voice was familiar. She finally spotted its owner, stuck beneath a fireplace that almost had collapsed under the weight of the floors above, and sighed. “Flint. What a pleasant surprise.”

To be continued...

“Help me get out of here, please!”

She had her wand stretched out, ready to do the spell, when she remembered why Marcus Flint was finding himself stuck under a fireplace at Hogwarts four years after he had left the school.

“I don't think so.”

“I'm on your side, I promise,” he wheezed.

“I doubt that, somehow.” She took a step backwards, then another one, away from him and towards the relative safety of the rear wall.

“I swear!”

If she didn't do something, he would die. A man was going to die before her eyes because she would not lift her wand to help him.

“Oh, for fuck's sake,” she mumbled and pointed her wand at him, already mid-step when the walls came crashing down around her.

* * *

“Am I dead?” His voice was uncertain.

“How would I know?” Katie tried opening her eyes, only to realise it made no difference as it was pitch dark.

“If you're here too, chances are we're both still alive.” There was a rustling close by.

“Lucky us,” she mumbled, fumbling for her wand. The relief when she found it next to her open hand, unbroken, made her giddy with relief. “Lumos!”

There wasn't much to see: just a big pile of debris and Marcus Flint, who hadn't been much of a looker even before the battle. Now, his face was streaked with blood and dust, and he seemed to have left at least one tooth behind.

“You OK there, Flint?”

“I'm not stuck anymore, at least. Where are we?” He looked up at an arched ceiling. “And how did that get there? We fell – “

“– all the way down. There should be a hole.” Katie looked accusingly at the stone arches above them.

“This must be one of those Hogwarts things.” He lowered his voice: “Remember the secret chamber of the Heir of Slytherin there was so much trouble over? Maybe it's something similar. Maybe Salazar Slytherin wasn't the only Founder to leave something behind.”

She refused to let him spook her. “Like a badger hole, you mean?”

“Hopefully.”

* * *

After one hour, they had established a few things. Firstly, Flint could learn to stay in her line of sight with a bit of prompting. Secondly, there appeared to be no way out, only more tunnels. And thirdly, Point-Me charms and other magic did not seem to work down there.

Katie was hungry, tired and scared, albeit less so than before. No one was flinging curses at her at the moment, so she would take her breaks when she could find them.

Regardless, the appearance of a silvery shape at the edge of the circle of light from her wand made her jump two feet in the air, before she realised it was just a ghost.

Flint was quicker on the uptake. “The Fat Friar! Hey, sir – could you tell us where we are?”

The ghost obligingly stopped in his path and turned around. “Why, I did not expect to encounter any students here! You're quite old to be a student, are you not?” the Friar asked Flint.

Katie smirked.

“Yes, well, there's a lot of people at the castle tonight...” Flint managed.

“I have never been more shocked! A battle at a _school_ – I do despair at the customs among young people today.”

“Mr Friar, where are we and how can I get out of here?” Katie asked as soon as she could, cutting Flint off mid-sentence.

“I'm afraid you cannot get out of here on your own, my dear. Two living souls came in, so two must come out. Together.”

The Friar looked at both of them, and he must have noticed both Flint's mutinous look and Katie's attempt to get rid of him. “Perhaps you find yourselves fighting on different sides? And only one wand between you, I see. Then you would be wise to listen to me: this is one of the hidden corners of Hogwarts, and normal rules do not apply. You must devise a way to get out together, or you will not get out at all.”

With that, he gently floated upwards, leaving them to stare at the uneven ceiling with open mouths.

“Makes sense in a way, I guess. Assuming you're barking mad,” Flint muttered at last. “Don't think I didn't notice you would have left me behind, by the way.”

“There's a war on if you hadn't noticed,” she reminded him.

“I already said I'm on your side,” he threw over his shoulder as he walked on, pushing debris out of his way.

“Yeah, right,” she muttered under her breath.

* * *

Voldemort's voice echoed through the rabbit warren of tunnels they had followed to no avail, demanding surrender within an hour. Flint looked pale, the corners of his mouth drooping. Uncertainty suited him: it blunted the edges of the swaggering entitlement that had irritated her so much on the Quidditch pitch.

“What will you do, Bell? If Potter dies,” he clarified. “When Potter dies – it's only a question of time.”

“I'll fight on, of course. If he dies. I wouldn't be so sure if I were you.” She wasn't going to show Marcus bloody Flint that she was afraid, no matter what threats Voldemort hurled at her.

“But – I know Potter. He's just an ordinary bloke!”

Katie flicked her hair. “I wouldn't say he's ordinary – he's brave and generous and kind. The world could do with a bit more of that going around.”

Flint was twitching with discomfort. “He's – he's just a teenager and he's up against that!” He waved vaguely at the ceiling but she got his meaning.

“Exactly,” she snapped. “How can you think that’s right?”

“Well, that's the way the world goes, innit?” he said wearily.

“Yes, if everyone just accepts it, it is, isn't it?”

It took him a few seconds to decipher that. “So you're going to rock up to You-Know-Who and tell him to mend his ways, are you?”

Katie gave him a scornful look. “Did I say that?”

They trudged on in silence.

“Do you think we're getting anywhere?” he asked eventually.

“Doubt it. How would I know, anyway?” Katie could feel a blister on her left heel. Not the sort of battle injury she had been expecting.

“You've spent a lot more time at Hogwarts than I have recently.”

“Would hardly call it Hogwarts anymore,” she muttered under her breath.

“What?” He slowed down, and she prodded him in the back with her wand.

“Keep moving. We won't get anywhere if we stand around.”

“Well, we're not getting anywhere walking, so why not give it a go?”

It was probably sarcasm, but after more than an hour in the dimly lit tunnels, she didn't care. “Sure. Let's have a rest, then,” she said, leaning against the wall which was conveniently placed only inches away.

He turned around to face her. Katie was actually happy he did, despite getting a full frontal view of Marcus Flint.

It was weird enough being down here without speaking to someone's back.

“What about Hogwarts, then?” he asked again.

“What do you mean?”

“You said you wouldn't call it Hogwarts anymore,” he said with a level of concern which was somewhat surprising in someone who had willingly participated in a pitched battle on the school grounds less than two hours ago.

“We don't usually fight on school premises, you know,” she said, before correcting herself. “Not using Unforgivables, anyway. Or we don't use them. The other side does.”

Well, Katie didn't use them much. Only when she had no other option.

Flint looked like Peeves was doing somersaults in his underwear. “What? I thought it would be – I thought Hogwarts was safe!”

Katie's open mouth must have clued him in that his statement was somewhat incompatible with their current circumstances because he added:

“Until tonight, I mean. I really thought it was the safest place to be.”

She was about to snap at him when she recognised the look on his face. She had seen it often enough in the mirror.

It was the feeling of the ground disappearing beneath one's feet, of the world shifting on its axis to reveal the creaking foundations of what had looked solid and steadfast to a child.

“Professor Snape would never allow that,” he said, but there was hesitation in his voice.

“ _Headmaster_ Snape has a different approach. Although he can do amazing things with sarcasm, too.” Katie's lip curled. “The Carrows don't have his way with words, but they don't let that hold them back. They have wands instead.”

“I thought they weren't allowed to use magic as punishment.” Flint didn't sound convinced.

“'Weren't', no. Didn't stop Alecto from cursing me in the back when I was on the way to Gryffindor Tower last week.” She craned her neck as if the barely-healed scar would be visible through her jumper.

“She's a teacher! Were you – Did you - “ He chewed his lip trying to find a way to phrase it to avoid giving offence, so Katie took pity on him rather than wait another five minutes.

“I wasn't overthrowing the regime at the time, I was just getting a blanket.” It was suddenly unbearably irritating that he didn't understand what it had been like at Hogwarts lately. “The Carrows know I'd be out there fighting if I weren’t finishing school. If they see a chance, they will go for it.”

“What about the kids? Surely –“

“I wanted the blanket because Howard Moon was in shock. He's a first-year they'd been practising the Cruciatus on because he didn't know when to stop mouthing off. Still missing dear old Hoggy Warty Hogwarts?”

The expression on his face was familiar from many disputed Quidditch referee decisions. “That's not right.”

“No shit, Sherlock. That's why I'm fighting this war. Or trying to.” She tried to get a clear view of his face. It was easier than expected: there was more light than before, so she could see every plane and crevice.

You couldn't play Quidditch against someone for two years without getting to know them a little, and while Katie wouldn't put any trust in him turning down an unfair advantage she didn't have him pegged as a die-hard Voldemort supporter either.

“Why are you here, Flint?” She took care not to sound like she was accusing him, just asking.

There was silence, followed by a sigh. “My father asked me to come.”

“So?”

“You have no idea how rare it is for my father to ask me to do something. Usually, he'd rather not talk to me.”

“What is it with you pure-blood Slytherins and your father issues? You and Draco Malfoy could be brothers. Except for the hair, obviously,” Katie said.

He actually laughed. “Our fathers are cousins, so it's not surprising. I didn't get the hair, fortunately.”

It was the strangest moment, standing in the gloom and smiling with Marcus Flint. She almost missed the tunnel had widened, and the ceiling had risen several feet above his head.

“Can you see?” she whispered, pointing around them.

He started saying something, but it was drowned by the water flooding them and everything around them.

Katie emerged, spluttering. “What the hell was that?”

Marcus was shaking his head to get rid of the water, reminding her of a dog at the seaside. He didn't quite succeed – his hair was plastered to his head, and he looked more like a young boy than she had ever seen him. Than he had looked when he had actually been a boy, before all this had started and the worst thing that could happen was to lose to Slytherin at Quidditch.

She was so distracted she didn't even notice she had lost her wand.

It was right there on the ground, in front of his feet. Distantly, she could hear her own heart beating, and ice seemed to have flooded her arms, suddenly too heavy to lift.

So close, and yet...

“Here,” he said, gently nudging it towards her with his foot. “I think you need it more than I do.”

Katie stared at him for a long moment before bending down to pick it up, a comforting presence in her hand when everything else was changing.

She was barely aware of her surroundings, but when the walls came crashing down around them she was forced to pay attention.

They crouched together, waiting for the rubble to settle.

“What's going on?” His voice was low, the tension returning to his shoulders.

“I have no idea! Wait, there's the Great Hall.”

They looked among them, horrorstruck. Hogwarts was ravaged, with bodies where students should be. There was an eerie silence.

“Come with me”, he offered.

“Where?”

“I’ll hide you.”

Katie brushed away her tears with a dirty hand. “Don’t you understand? There's no point hiding because if I don’t go on fighting we’ll still be in the same place in ten years time. Twenty years time. I can’t just opt out, tempting though it may seem.”

He straightened up. “Hang on – when is this?”

“You mean - “

“How can we know how long we have been gone for? Maybe there are no more wizards left.”

The moon rose.

“Isn't that Neville Longbottom?”

“I guess it's still 1998, then. Nev- ”

“Shh.” His finger burned against her lips. “There's something I must tell you.”

She sighed. “You lied to me, didn't you? Of course you were fighting on the other side. Don't worry, it would have been obvious even to a very young child. It didn't change anything.”

“It kind of matters to me!”

“Do something about it, then!” she snapped. “I'm sure they have a spare wand somewhere.”

He looked at her for a long moment. “I don't think I can do that. But I can do this.”

His large hand disappeared into his pocket and came out with a coin. “It's a Portkey. Are you sure you won't come with me?”

It was a wry smile, but she managed one. ”Positive. Good luck, though. Marcus.”

“Katie.” He did have a nice smile when he actually used it.

Then he was gone, and only the empty battlefield remained.

“Katie!”

And Neville Longbottom, of course. Katie squared her shoulders and marched towards him. It was time to finish this, one way or the other.

* * *

****

**Nineteen Weeks Later**

The wall was uneven, the surface rough beneath her palm. There was no sign of an opening, even though she was certain this is where they had stumbled out to rejoin the battle.

Or not, in Marcus’s case.

“Strange, isn’t it?” a familiar voice said above her. “In some ways, nothing has changed, and yet everything has. I told my dad to go fuck himself. After he got out of Azkaban, obviously.”

Katie found her voice again. “Good.”

“I saw you in the paper, so I knew you made it through. What are you up to these days?”

“This and that. I’ve been helping rebuild Hogwarts. Turns out I didn’t learn so much during my eighth year, so I may go back again.” She thought of something: “I started playing Quidditch on Sundays, we meet up in Hogsmeade. You should come.” It bubbled out.

“You’re not serious.”

She raised her chin. “I am.”

“I might, then.” He weighed back on his heels. “I think things will be all right, you know. I mean - despite everything.”

Katie looked at the battle-scarred buildings and the bright green grass, growing as if nothing had happened, and Marcus. He looked lighter somehow, like he had to be tethered to the ground or else he’d take flight.

“Yes. Yes, I think it will.”

* * *

Below them, the structure Helga had built so many years ago creaked and groaned as it settled back into the foundations of Hogwarts. She had got wind of what Salazar was up to, and decided to rebalance the scales a bit.

People were people, no matter what house they belonged to, if only they could be brought to realise that. A little nudge here and there wouldn’t go amiss.

She may not be able to convert everyone to her way of thinking, but she would feel better for leaving a little something behind to guide those who came after her.

Hogwarts would know when it was needed.


End file.
